Entertainment

Dairy cattle...gentle ones

Justin Marsh, 16, Fort Morgan, left, and Megan McMinn, 18, Fort Morgan won second and first place respectively in a senior division of the dairy show. (Dan Barker/Times)

Like other cattle, dairy cattle present some challenges when raising them, but they have some special qualities, too.Compared to some animals shown at the Morgan County Fair, cattle are more complicated, said Trey Branom, 12, of Fort Morgan, because they need more grooming to look just right for the contests.Their hair has to lay just right, and their hooves must be cleaned, he said.However, the effort is not quite so heavy with dairy cattle, said Tanna Hansen, 11, of Wiggins. Diary cattle hair must be clipped, but not managed.Also, dairy cows are gentler, she said."They always rub their heads against you," Branom said.They also seem to have more personality, Hansen said. She knows both beef and dairy cattle, because her family raises beef cattle.Hansen named her catch-it heifer "Clancy Dew," and says she's pretty gentle. The heifer is also more manageable than some cows. She rarely gets freaked out.This was his first time in his four years of 4-H he's raised a dairy cow - which he named "Jersey" -- but for all the work involved, he would raise one again, Branom said. He had a catch-it cow, too."You actually get very connected to it," he said."You have to be the one to work with them," Hansen cautioned, rather than having others help care for a heifer. "They're really attached to you."The truth of their words was evident as their heifers rubbed their heads affectionately against their owners.

Advertisement

Dairy cattle projects last a little longer than some others, especially with catch-it heifers. They are shown the first year, and the kids keep them to show again the next year at a different age. Different competitions take place among the different ages, and their birth dates are crucial.For example, among the youngest dairy cattle this fair, the junior competition had animals born in March or April of this year. The intermediate had animals born in December throughFebruary.Junior yearlings were born between March and August of 2011, and senior yearlings between September 2010 and February 2011.Part of the catch-it program is to breed the heifer in the second year.This was also the first year with a category for milking cows.Dairy Judge Keith Maxey of the Weld County Extension Office said he looks at the dairy animals for overall conformation of the body, which is supposed to be angular and clean, and whether they have good feet and legs.However, in the showmanship, it is the owner who is on display, he said. He looks at how well the owners present the animal according to show rules, and how well he or she has prepared the cow for the show. That can be as simple

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.